1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to storage area networks, and more particularly, to a method for implementing security management in a storage area network by controlling access to network resources.
2. Statement of the Problem
A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated, centrally managed, information infrastructure, which enables interconnection of compute nodes and storage nodes. A storage area network facilitates universal access and sharing of storage resources. SANs are presently being integrated into distributed network environments using Fibre Channel technology (described below). Typically, a SAN utilizes a block-oriented protocol for providing storage to compute nodes, while general purpose networks (GPNs), including local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and the Internet, typically implement file-oriented protocols. Storage area networks also differ from general purpose networks in that SANs carry large amounts of data with low latency, and historically have lacked a mechanism for implementing security across the network.
Storage area networks presently typically provide an ‘everyone (on the network) is trusted’ security model because, prior to the availability of Fibre Channel, SANs had a distance limitation on the order of tens of meters. Therefore, compute node operating system (O/S) behavior in existing storage area networks has been in accordance with the distance constraint, i.e., there has been little relatively storage resource sharing among different compute node and each compute node often has dedicated data storage.
Compute nodes on SANs are often also server nodes of a GPN. In these networked systems, the SAN is often implemented with separate, high-speed, network hardware from that of the GPN so as to offload the data from the GPN, thereby increasing GPN and effective CPU performance. Such separation is often desirable because effective compute node CPU performance is often limited by the available bandwidth between compute and storage nodes, and because the bandwidth required between compute and storage nodes often far exceeds all other network traffic affecting the same compute nodes.
Development of storage area networks has been motivated by the need to manage and share the dramatically increasing volume of business data, and to mitigate its effect on GPN performance. Using Fibre Channel connections, SANs can provide high-speed compute node to/from storage node, and storage node to storage node, communications at distances that allow remote workstation and server compute nodes to easily access large shared data storage pools.
Using SAN technology, management of storage systems can be more easily centralized than with alternative technologies, and data backup is facilitated. Both factors act to increase overall system efficiency. The large distances allowed by Fibre Channel SAN technology make it easier to deploy remote disaster recovery sites than with prior technology.
A Fibre Channel SAN can be local, or can now be extended over large geographic distances. The SAN can be viewed as an extension to the storage bus concept that enables storage devices and servers to be interconnected using similar elements as in local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs): routers, hubs, switches and gateways.
Fibre Channel is presently considered to be the architecture on which most future SAN implementations will be built. Fibre Channel is a technology standard that allows data to be transferred from one network node to another at very high speeds. This standard is backed by a consortium of industry vendors and has been accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The word Fibre in Fibre Channel is spelled differently than “fiber” to indicate that the interconnections between nodes are not necessarily based on fiber optics, but can also use copper cables. Fibre Channel is, in essence, a high performance serial link supporting its own, as well as higher level protocols such as the FDDI, SCSI, HIPPI and IPI. SAN configurations may incorporate the FIG. 5 protocol encapsualted within Fibre Channel frames.
Data integrity is an important issue in storage area network technology, since multiple compute nodes employing diverse types of operating systems could coexist within the SAN, and some operating systems do not gracefully share access to the same storage devices with other operating systems. Some operating systems do not even gracefully share access to storage devices among multiple compute nodes even if each node runs the same O/S. Because of this, conflicts can occur that can have damaging results. These conflicts may include file and record lock conflicts, overwrites of home blocks on previously initialized disks, reservations taken out on disks which a compute node should not have access to, improper reformatting, overwriting of files, or other maloperation.
Presently, many current SAN implementations rely on limits on access to the physical wiring for security purposes. As SANs become larger and more geographically dispersed, a security scheme is required which will provide SAN-wide security in order to prevent conflicts over the entire network.
One security mechanism presently being implemented is a partitioning approach called ‘zoning’, or effectively partitioning at the ‘wire’ level of the SAN. Various levels of ‘zoning’ may be used to restrict the any-to-any access by limiting compute node attachment to specific storage nodes. Zoning is often implemented in Fibre Channel switches, such as those available from Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. These switches can be programmed to filter Fibre Channel frames according to their source and destination identifiers, thereby restricting SAN communications to those among authorized nodes and node pairs. Multiple such switches may be incorporated into a switched fabric that appears to each node as a larger, potentially geographically dispersed, switch.
It is known that storage nodes of a SAN could be RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) controllers. RAID controllers are also known as array controllers since they are typically operable to present storage to a SAN with or without operating in redundancy modes. The RAID controllers could be configured to serve multiple logical units of storage. Each logical unit may represent a physical disk or tape drive, or be formed from part of one, all of one, or a combination of several, disk drives with or without redundancy. Each logical unit is a storage resource intended for use by a set of one or more compute nodes, where the sets of intended compute nodes for each logical unit may differ. Zoning as currently implemented typically restricts communications on a node basis, not a logical unit basis.
Resource providers of a SAN include storage nodes as well as any other node configured to provide resources to the SAN. Similarly, resource users of a SAN include compute nodes as well as any other node configured to use resources available on the SAN. For example, but not by way of limitation, a storage node having a data backup device and a disk device can be simultaneously both a resource provider—providing disk LUNs to the SAN—and a resource user—accessing disk resources of other storage nodes to backup data. Similarly, a storage node having disk devices could be a resource provider—providing disk LUNs to the SAN—and a resource user—transmitting data changes to a second resource provider to maintain a mirrored dataset.
Therefore, security and access control needs to be improved to guarantee data integrity by preventing conflicts. It is also desirable that the security and access controls be capable of management from a single network management point.
The Fibre Channel specification does not include a specific mechanism for managing security-related issues, and there is presently no commonly available solution to the above-described problems of providing secure access to shared SAN resources.